Ghulam Azam

Ghulam Azam (7 November 1922-23 October 2014) was the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh from 1960 to 2000, succeeding Maulana Abdur Raheem and preceding Motiur Rahman Nizami. He was imprisoned for war crimes committed during the Bangladesh Liberation War and died in jail.

Biography
Ghulam Azam was born on 7 November 1922 in Dhaka, British Raj (present-day Bangladesh) to a Muslim family. In 1960 he became the leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami and he formed the Shanti Committees in addition to the Razakars and Al-Badr paramilitary militias for Pakistan to govern East Pakistan. In 1971 his men opposed the Mukti Bahini rebels who sought independence from Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War, and they massacred Hindu civilians and Bangladeshi intellectuals, in addition to raping women. From 1978 to 1994 he illegally lived in Bangladesh, but his citizenship was restored in 1994 and he remained the leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami Party until 2000, when Motiur Rahman Nizami became the new leader. In 2012 he was arrested for war crimes committed during the Bangladesh Liberation War and was sentenced to life imprisonment due to his age and health, and he died of a stroke on 23 October 2014.